The present disclosure relates to steering apparatuses and methods. The steering apparatus includes a counter-force-generating motor that includes a rotor and a stator disposed to face the rotor, and is capable of supplying a counter force to a steering wheel, an angle sensor for sensing a relative angle between the rotor and the stator, and an electronic control unit capable of dynamically controlling a flow of a current applied to the stator based on the relative angle sensed by the angle sensor. The steering method is provided for steering a steering wheel using the steering apparatus.

Provided is a steer-by-wire steering system for a vehicle that can reduce or eliminate the impact noise generated by the rack at the rack end. A control unit of the steering system is configured to determine a target steered angle (αt) according to the steering angle and drive the steering actuator so as to cause the steered angle to coincide with the target steered angle, and to determine a target reaction force (Tt) according to a steered state of the wheels and drive the reaction force actuator so as to cause the reaction force to coincide with the target reaction force. The control unit is further configured to set a maximum limit (αmC) on the target steered angle, the maximum limit being a value smaller than a physical maximum steered angle (αmP) of the wheels imposed by the steering mechanism.

A steer-by-wire steering system, including: a two-system reaction force applying device including two reaction force controllers and configured to obtain operation information and apply an operation reaction force; a two-system steering device including two steering controllers and configured to steer a wheel; an operation information obtaining device; an auxiliary steering device capable of changing a direction of a vehicle; two dedicated communication lines one of which information-transmittably and information-receivably connects one of the two reaction force controllers and one of the two steering controllers to each other, and the other of which information-transmittably and information-receivably connects the other of the two reaction force controllers and the other of the two steering controllers to each other; and a first communication bus to which the operation information obtaining device is at least information-transmittably connected and to which the two steering controllers and the auxiliary steering device are at least information-receivably connected.

A vehicle steering apparatus includes a shaft member, a moving portion, a support member, and a stop portion. The moving portion includes a first abutting surface that faces the stop portion in a circumferential direction of the shaft member. The first abutting surface is inclined with respect to an axial direction of the shaft member to face a shaft support portion side when the moving portion is viewed in a radial direction of the shaft member. The stop portion includes a first abutted surface that abuts the first abutting surface.

In a steering control apparatus, a reaction force torque command value is calculated so that a detection value of a torque sensor follows a target value obtained by adding at least a viscosity command value and a return command value to a steering torque command value, and an electric current that flows to a reaction force rotary electric machine is controlled based on the reaction force torque command value. Whether a steering state is a turning state or a returning state is determined by comparing a physical quantity corresponding to an output torque of a reaction force device and the detection value of the torque sensor. Characteristics of one or more of a reaction force amount operation, a viscosity amount operation, and a return amount operation are made differ between the turning state and the returning state.

According to embodiments of the present invention, when a driver applies steering torque greater than the reaction torque of a reaction motor to a steering shaft, the steering shaft is mechanically prevented from rotating any more, and thus the driver's steering feel can be improved.

A steering apparatus includes: a mechanism that turns a turning wheel; a first motor that generates a driving force that is given to the mechanism; and a control device. The control device includes: a first computation circuit that computes a first limiting value to which an electric current to be supplied to the first motor is limited in a particular situation; a determination circuit that determines whether the turning wheel is in touch with an obstacle; a second computation circuit that computes a second limiting value to which the electric current to be supplied to the first motor is limited when the determination circuit determines that the turning wheel is in touch with the obstacle; and a third computation circuit that computes the threshold to be used by the determination circuit, based on a smaller limiting value of the first limiting value and the second limiting value.

A steering system and method can determine one or more position-related characteristics of a steering column of a machine, determine that the one or more position-related characteristics indicate that a resistive force is to be applied to the steering column, and control operation of an electric motor to apply the resistive force to the steering column, wherein a mechanical stop (e.g., a progressive mechanical stop) can be provided to restrict rotation of the steering column. One or more virtual stops may be set to limit rotation of the steering column by way of controlling the operation of the electric motor to apply the resistive force.

A vehicle steering control method includes receiving a sensed handwheel angle corresponding to a position of a handwheel and receiving a sensed handwheel toque value indicating an amount of torque applied by an operator on the handwheel. The method also includes, in response to a determination that the handwheel motor is in an unlocked condition, generating a roadwheel angle based on the sensed handwheel angle and a vehicle speed. The method also includes, in response to a determination that the handwheel motor is in a locked condition generating the roadwheel angle based on the sensed handwheel torque value and the vehicle speed and, in response to a determination that the locked condition of the handwheel motor is an intermittent condition, maintaining the handwheel motor in the locked condition.

A steering reaction force apparatus for a vehicle includes: a housing that is openable and closable by a cover unit, a stator unit fixed to an inside of the housing, a rotor unit disposed to face the stator unit and to be rotated by electromagnetic interaction with the stator unit, a transmission shaft unit connected to the rotor unit to rotate in conjunction with the rotor unit, a power transmission unit disposed inside the rotor unit to transmit a rotational force of the transmission shaft unit to a steering shaft, and a retainer unit to support the power transmission unit with respect to the cover unit.